Monday, April 29, 2013

Hawaii Tourism

2013 Visitor Stats from Hawaii Tourist Authority

Recently, the Hawaii Tourism
Authority released some good news about the increase in visitors to Hawaii in
March. The 769,047 tourists that visited the islands was an increase of
7.6% from last March. The majority of the visitors came from the Western
US states but the number of visitors from the rest of the US, Canada, Japan, and
cruise ships were all up. There was also an increase in visitors from
Oceania, China, Korea, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Latin America.
Our take is that a lot of people from everywhere came to Hawaii,
resulting in over 7% more tourists during the first three months of 2013
compared to the same time in 2012.

When Oahu has an increase in
visitors, it does not always mean that more visitors show up on Hawaii
Island. But the past few months we really noticed an increase in the
number of visitors at the two hotels nearby and in vacation rentals inside our
condo complex. We have met couples and groups of people from all over the
world at the pool, on the beach, and in the grocery stores.

Many of the visitors we talked
to have never been to Hawaii before. The increased violence and crime in
Southern Europe, the Caribbean islands, and Mexico has forced them to change
the location of their yearly tropical vacation. One couple’s biggest
surprise was that Hawaii was no more expensive than an upscale resort in
Mexico. Many people think Hawaii is really expensive and Mexico is really
cheap, but the 5-star resorts in Mexico are very pricey. They
thought the food was better in Hawaii and they were not having the stomach
problems they frequently get in Mexico. They were also happy that there were no troops
patrolling their hotel with machine guns and were not scared to go out at
night.

Many US Universities had their Spring breaks in March instead of April
because Easter was early this year. We noticed large groups of college age
visitors rented condos during March, we assume for Spring break. The
strongly worded warnings from the State Department about the violence in Mexico
and the Caribbean may be partly the reason for the large number of young people
on the island. Though they loved the sun and beach, they
looked bored with the lack of night life on Hawaii Island.

We hope the new visitors to the island will not only return, but tell their friends about their great Hawaii vacation.

Great post! This is indeed so informative! Hawaii is one of the greatest destination ever. I think everybody would love this amazing place for a vacation. This paradise is absolutely timeless. And I'm pretty sure every moment in this place is incredible